Nato

Did a "Lucas Mamdani", brother to New York City's mayor, buy properties with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to financially benefit from new city policies on affordable housing? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find evidence to support the existence of any sibling of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The claim originated from a page with a satire label that was…

Did Barbra Streisand, British politician Nigel Farage and Kevin Costner each say "Our country would be safer without Somali immigrants -- starting with Ilhan Omar!"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories featuring those and other famous people were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were no news articles about such an event and the…

Do viral posts tell a real-life story about a Connecticut woman named "Ada Morrison" who was committed to a psychiatric hospital for "excessive reading and intellectual pretensions unsuitable for woman"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories extensively researched available records but found no mention of the story outside of social media platforms. Those posts were illustrated by an AI-generated image.…

Does the 1986 Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, "authored" by U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, make it legal to "blow drug boats out of the water"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reviewed the text of the law, and it says nothing about an unrestricted use of lethal force. An expert in maritime law confirmed to Lead Stories that the Act…

Did Zohran Mamdani, Melania Trump, Sen. John Kennedy or other prominent Americans go live with a 3 a.m. emergency monologue claiming they were under threat for secrets they were about to expose about President Donald Trump or former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by a…

Do these viral videos show real footage from flooded tents in Gaza? No, that's not true: While there were credible reports about December 2025 flooding in that region, some of the Gaza flood clips shared on social media were not real. The signs pointing to AI included strangely shaped hands, distorted faces and scene elements inconsistent with real natural disaster…

Are videos of women being kicked out of court for outfits described as "inappropriate" real? No, that's not true: Multiple low-quality viral videos following the same script and posted by the same creators show signs of AI. Evidence of AI origin includes abnormal hand anatomy and a judge's podium at the back of the courtroom instead of the front. The…

New visa directives wrongly conflate journalism with censorship The International Fact-Checking Network is deeply concerned by reports that the U.S. State Department has instructed consular officers to deny visas to individuals who have worked in fact-checking, content moderation, and trust and safety. Fact-checking is journalism. It is the straightforward work of comparing public claims against the best available evidence and…

Did Ohio Democrat Amy Acton spread a fake video of Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy advocating year-round school, as social media posts claim? No, that's not true: Four days into the controversy over year-round school, the Ramaswamy campaign had not publicly stated the video was fake and declined to answer questions from Lead Stories. The Columbus Dispatch quoted an un-named…

Does a viral video of Israeli soldiers setting an American flag on fire show a real-life event? No, that's not true: The clip was likely created using AI, probably Sora, whose watermark appeared to have been covered by an emoji of a skull. The flag ends up undamaged despite being set alight, the type of glitch that is characteristic of…